Clarion, PA. – After taking a split in their Mountain East Conference (MEC) North opener over the weekend, the Wheeling University Baseball team (17-14, 7-9) looked for a bounce back on Monday in a non-conference game against Clarion. The offense responded in a big way with a season-high 19 runs as Wheeling defeated Clarion 19-2. It was the most runs scored in a single game for the team since they scored 19 runs in a non-conference game against Alderson Broaddus on March 4th, 2022.

The action would get started right away as Christian Boyles singled up the middle to start the game. The next batter Spencer Craig was hit by a pitch, and Braden Killens would take advantage singling up the middle to bring home Boyles and make it a 1-0 Cardinal's lead. Lucas Rawlins would then step in and got his big day going with an RBI double that brought home Craig and pushed the Wheeling lead to 2-0. After a strikeout for the first out of the inning, Scott Kondroik stepped in and lifted a sacrifice fly to make it a 3-0 game. The final run of the inning came home after Kobe Hill walked and a passed ball allowed Rawlins to come home and give Wheeling a 4-0 lead after half an inning.

Sonny Peluchette made his first career collegiate start and, lost in all the offense was the work the he put in on the mound. With a four-run lead before he even took the mound, Peluchette came on and threw a scoreless innings allowing just one hit. He would keep the zeroes coming, throwing up five straight zeroes to start the game, and allowed just three hits during that timespan. He would end his day after that, going the 5.0 shutout innings allowing four hits while walking one and striking out a career-high five batters. The Cardinals were also held off the board after their big first inning and after five innings it was a 4-0 Wheeling lead with Peluchette being eligible for his first career win.

The offense would insure that that would happen as they put together their biggest inning of the day in the top of the sixth. It began with Lucas Rawlins reaching on an ertor and after one out a Donovan Dubuisson walk put two on for Nic Ancelet. He would send a three-run home run to center field and the Cardinal's lead was pushed to 7-0. Following the homer Anthony May walked, Sammy Kondroik singled, and Aidan Willard was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Pete Toula would then step in and bring home two runners with an RBI single and the Cardinals were off and running with a 9-0 lead. It was the start of three straight RBI hits, with Killens adding a run with an RBI single and Rawlins adding an RBI double to make it an 11-0 game.

A Thomas Kegerreis sacrifice fly would bring home another Cardinal run and serve as the second out of the inning before Rawlins stole third. Dubuisson would bring home some on an RBI double and was replaced by Ancelet on an RBI double that made it a 14-0 Cardinals lead. The 10 run inning was the highest scoring inning for the Cardinals this season and they gave more than enough insurance for the bullpen. Hayden Wilcox and Malkolm Barrett each threw scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh before Josh Wessler gave up the only two Golden Eagle runs of the day on a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth. The ninth inning saw Wheeling add five more runs to their ledger on an RBI single from Willard and a pair of two RBI doubles courtesy of Rawlins and Jacob Lentz.

Hunter Dyck came on for the bottom of the ninth and got a pair of groundouts and a strikeout to e d the game. Lucas Rawlins led the way for the Cardinals, going 3-6 with a career-high five RBI and a double in the game. The five RBI were the most by a Cardinal so far this season as he built off the momentum from his 100th career hit. It was also a career day for Nic Ancelet, who finished 2-3 with a home run, a double, and four RBI. In total, five different Cardinals finished with multi RBI games as Pete Toula, Braden Killens, and Jacob Lentz each finished with two RBI, including Lentz's first career two RBI game. It was a big regional win for the Cardinals and gives them momentum heading into a big MEC North matchup this weekend.

The Wheeling University Baseball team returns to action on Saturday, April 15th for the first two games of their four-game series against Frostburg Stage beginning at 1 PM.